What is the best synthetic oil?

NIZMOZ

Well mostly VQ series engines. The VQ is a bit hard on oils and RP just didn't do well.

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SOLD: 2007 NISMO 350Z #0044 Silver Alloy
New DD: 2010 Titan Pro4X CC

Red370

RP does just fine in mine. Been running it for 18,000 miles so far and 60K+ in my last car. Here is a good test, RP is one of the best.

http://www.animegame.com/cars/Oil%20Tests.pdf

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2011 Mustang 5.0 | 3.55's | Lethal Performance off road H-Pipe | Magnaflow Muffler Delete | JLT CAI/Bama tuned 417whp/ 404 ft/lbs

LiquidZ

This article is thrown around a lot by Royal Purple users. This test is really only designed to see if an oil has extreme pressure additives in the oil formulation. It is not a measure of how well an oil performs, although this test leads people to believe so.

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NIZMOZ

Really? You had UOA's done of "your" oil? Because MANY and I mean MANY people have and they have proven on other forums RP is not that good and NOT recommended.

Just because you use it and you don't see any issues doesn't mean it isn't causing higher wear over time. You won't know that without having the tests done. And RP is far from being the best, it's the best at being the worst.

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SOLD: 2007 NISMO 350Z #0044 Silver Alloy
New DD: 2010 Titan Pro4X CC

Z eliminator

Im using castrol edge.

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12.343 @114.14 . 4.5 stroker motor is now being built. Dec 1 2015.

wishihadnav

check this out taken from the Mobil 1 website...seems like there are Esters in Mobil 1?

Is Mobil 1 an Ester Oil


Decide for yourself if you want Mobil 1 or not

wishihadnav

IDZRVIT

I've had great success with used Harley-Davidson oil from my bikes which came used from my vette which came used from my Kia which came used from my John Deere lawn tractor which came used from my deep fryer.

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Vette: 355 cid, 400 rwhp
'13 CTS-V Coupe: 6.2L LSA, 556HP

Red370

someone show me definitive evidence that RP does more harm than good, because i've researched all over the place and found nothing but heresay, Jordo seems to know a bit, whats your take?

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2011 Mustang 5.0 | 3.55's | Lethal Performance off road H-Pipe | Magnaflow Muffler Delete | JLT CAI/Bama tuned 417whp/ 404 ft/lbs

wishihadnav

i read prolonged use of RP will eventually corrode and blow the motor up haha..nobody's saying that RP is bad..it may very well be the best..or the worst..haha jk.

LiquidZ

Blackstone will tell you how your engine is responding.

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gumpy

I'm currently running RP, having searched the 350z forums RP doesn't seem to be the best... =(...

Neither does Motul to be honest... Redline's hard to find in Australia...

Jordo!

Honestly, I'm just not disregarding empirical data (reported in the oil nerd's thread) when it's available and relevant.

Independently gatherd and averaged UOA wear data from diferent samples for a highly similar engine is relevant whereas gear lubricity tests (like RP and I think Amsoil are known to report) are not.

As to whether any of that data should be taken into account at all comes down to the degree of typical variablity in engine wear in the population.

My feeling (which may be wrong) is that short of balls-to-the wall track only driving, the mean wear data from other DD's for a given oil in a given motor shouldn't vary substantially from that of other DD's for that oil and engine.

In other words, yes driving habits may vary, but the motor itself shouldn't break down significantly differently from driver to driver provided they are operating the vehicle within its design tolerances, especially modern engines that are built quite a bit better allowing for tighter tolerances.

The only people who regularly push that envelop are track-only drivers, who may even tear down the whole engine afterwards. That said, if the oil is doing it's job, wear should be minimal, and parts shouldn't fail prematurally, even then. When they do, it's because the design tolareances were exceeded rather than skirted.

Someone with a strong background in automotive engineering may disagree with this view in which case I will defer to their wisdom.

That said, if the end result is to conclude, "well any oil will do the job, and any syntehtic should be fine or better", then that means, at worst, you won't make a flat-out wrong decision taking the availabe wear data into account.

In other words, the data may be inconclusive, but they point to a few specific oils, all of which should work just fine, and if the data are correct, may even work a bit better. Inconclusive data should not be dismissed; in any science, there is always some error and variablity. That's just the way it is. However, disregarding relevant empirical data entirely, to me, is just foolish.

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WarmAndSCSI

Actually engine wear is directly proportionate to engine load and RPM, so you'll find that UOA results vary a lot among the same exact car model. Unless everybody drives on the same routes, terrain, in the same climate, and with the same exact patterns and habits, then it's almost meaningless to compare UOA results apples-to-apples. That said, there are meaningful trends you can find among large numbers of UOA results...

When people start testing oils on our exact engine on an engine dyno with precise simulated load, I'll start paying attention to individual reports of empirical wear data. Until then, I'll stick with a proven synthetic oil which is first and foremost good on paper. The certifications tagged on quality synthetic oils are not just arbitrary - if you understand the parameters of each certification label, you can easily discern how "good" an oil is on paper. This certainly is a lot more scientific than using UOA results from a whole gamut of different operating conditions.

Somebody mentioned Pennzoil Ultra, which is certainly a good oil, and that it is Ferrari factory fill. This is not accurate - it's just the only American-made oil endorsed by Ferrari. i.e. it's the only American-made oil that has a particular formulation (5W-40 European car formula in this case) which meets Ferrari's oil specifications. Just like how only Mobil 1 0W-40 meets BMW's Long-Life oil specification. This doesn't necessarily mean it is factory fill from BMW...

The Pennzoil Ultra grade for our cars (5W-30, non European) actually has a fairly low HTHS rating of 3.1; which is lower than even Pennzoil Platinum. It's honestly not a very good high-performance oil. I would suspect it does clean very well, though, since that is what it's marketed to do best. But remember, Pennzoil Ultra 5W-30 does NOT meet Ferrari's specifications - it is not good enough to use in one of their engines, whereas 5W-40 European is. And it's not just the different base weight or weight split, it's the fact that the formulations are probably entirely different.

I've long been a proponent of Mobil 1 0W-40 since it is a very good TRUE synthetic oil (no Group III base stock is used in it). It has a HTHS rating of at least 3.5 and even though there are some reports of it quickly shearing to a 30-weight oil, it has proven to protect my own built engines very well. I've noticed hardly any difference in bearing wear when comparing M1 0W-40 to Red Line.

Currently, my pick for the 370Z is Castrol Syntec 0W-30 European car formula (made in Germany, AKA German Castrol). This is a true Group IV oil with an HTHS rating of 3.6 - it is very impressive on paper and has proven to protect very well over a broad range of UOA results. I only trust large, consistent trends in UOA results over multiple kinds of engines... that and the fact that an entire oil enthusiast community holds it in very high regard.

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NIZMOZ

Hmmm..Mobil 1 has many Group 3 base stocks in it. Where did you hear it doesn't? It is talked about a lot too on BITOG.

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SOLD: 2007 NISMO 350Z #0044 Silver Alloy
New DD: 2010 Titan Pro4X CC